Howard Smith/US PresswirePhillies manager Charlie Manuel said that he thought that the Yankees were "outplayed" in the American League Championship Series against the Texas Rangers.

PHILADELPHIA — Friday night, Charlie Manuel sat inside his Haddonfield home, watching Game 6 of the American League Championship Series.

And he saw what everyone else did — a Rangers team that manhandled the defending World Series champion Yankees.

"I watched every pitch in it and everything that happened," the Phillies manager said prior to last night's Game 6 of the National League Championship Series. "And I think that the Yankees got outplayed. And I think Texas did a tremendous job."

For a manager who has made a career out of offense, he was impressed with how the Rangers lineup systematically dismantled the Yankees pitchers. But in that same vein, he immediately recognized why the Yankees lineup — considered the best in baseball — couldn't put a dent in Game 6 starter Colby Lewis.

They were pressing.

"I was surprised, actually, that last night at t he Yankees, as far as their hitting," Manuel said. "I felt like they started chasing a lot of bad balls out of the strike zone and they've got a tremendous hitting team. I thought maybe they were definitely trying to catch up too quick or trying too hard. But I don't know. That's how the game goes.

"That's a good (thing). Just goes to show you that anybody can get beat in baseball and I think that happens all the time to a lot of teams and everything. That's part of it. That's baseball and that's the part that's hard to explain."